The present invention relates to a connector, particularly to a connector mounted on a flexible substrate having a flexible conductor exposed on a surface thereof.
As a connector mounted on a flexible substrate, for example, JP 2005-122901 A discloses a connector 1 as shown in FIG. 19. The connector 1 is mounted on a flexible flat cable 2 and includes a metal plate 4 having a piercing piece 3, and a metallic receiving groove plate 6 in which a receiving groove 5 is formed.
When the piercing piece 3 of the metal plate 4 is stuck into the flat cable 2 in a state where the metal plate 4 is aligned with the receiving groove plate 6 so that the piercing piece 3 is inserted along one end of the receiving groove 5, a flexible conductor 7 inside the flat cable 2 is sheared by the piercing piece 3. Then, with insertion of the piercing piece 3, a sheared part of the flexible conductor 7 is caught in a gap formed between the other end of the receiving groove 5 and the piercing piece 3 so as to be a stretched, cut part 7A, which comes into contact with the piercing piece 3. As a result, the metal plate 4 and the flexible conductor 7 are electrically connected to each other.
However, the flexible conductor 7 is covered with an insulating material 8 of the flat cable 2 that is to be sheared along with the flexible conductor 7 when the flat cable 2 is pierced with the piercing piece 3 of the metal plate 4. Thus, a cut piece of the insulating material 8 may be sandwiched between the piercing piece 3 and the flexible conductor 7, resulting in poor contact between the piercing piece 3 and the stretched, cut part 7A of the flexible conductor 7. When such poor contact occurs, reliability of the electrical connection between the metal plate 4 and the flexible conductor 7 deteriorates.
In addition, as shown in FIG. 19, the piercing piece 3 needs to be stuck into the flat cable 2 in the state where the metal plate 4 is aligned with the receiving groove plate 6 so that the piercing piece 3 is inserted along one end of the receiving groove 5. Further, a large force is required for sticking the piercing piece 3 into the flat cable 2 in which the flexible conductor 7 is incorporated. Therefore, the connector 1 is hardly mounted on the flat cable 2 in an easy manner.